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Be very careful looking at low power pumps and running a SWCG. There are minimum flow rates needed for SWCG's.

You can do a Stenner pump system. How available is all this type of equipment in Baja? Are you going to import it from the USA?

The simplest system to start is the robot and manual addition of liquid chlorine. If line power is going to be available in the not too distant future, do consider how much effort you want to make into doing a marginal plumbed system instead of a real system once you get line power.
 
VWRosco said:
We would like to fill the pool and then cover it and leave it until our next return. There may be 7 or 8 months w/out anyone down there.
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Is this still a requirement? The robot is fine when you are there but I don't see that working for you when you are not there for long periods of time. The ones with timers only work for a week at time. Need to be cleaned and reset. If you hired someone for that, it might work but they would need to be well versed in testing and adjusting levels.

When away for a long period of time, the only way I can see doing this is with a VS pump and an SWG. It would be the closest thing to maintenance free. A VS pump on the lowest RPM would use less than 100 watts (more efficient than a cheap low HP pump or even a robot). A SWG is around 200 watts for a 40k version. Minimum run time for that size pool would be dependent on the size of the SWG but could be kept fairly short with a very large SWG and if the pool is covered. The enemy will be heat during the summer as that will consume the FC faster. So the cover will help during the day but would keep heat in during the night so an automatic cover that could open at night might help. But then water consumption comes into play (evaporation) so you would need an autofill.
 
The OP settled on draining the pool when they leave. They will be off the grid for some time and will have NO power available when gone during the summer.
 
mknauss said:
Be very careful looking at low power pumps and running a SWCG. There are minimum flow rates needed for SWCG's.

You can do a Stenner pump system. How available is all this type of equipment in Baja? Are you going to import it from the USA?

The simplest system to start is the robot and manual addition of liquid chlorine. If line power is going to be available in the not too distant future, do consider how much effort you want to make into doing a marginal plumbed system instead of a real system once you get line power.
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We will see what they have for equipment in Baja and importing is not a problem for us. I think if the pump/swcg option is too much of a power draw to work sufficiently then we will go robot and manual liquid chlorine. But I'd like to investigate the conventional pump and SWCG option as a less labor intensive option. Either way we will plumb the pool for future line voltage-drain(s) skimmer, return jets, pump house with pipe terminations, etc. even if we don't use a circ. pump and sand filter to start.
 
mas985 said:
Is this still a requirement? The robot is fine when you are there but I don't see that working for you when you are not there for long periods of time. The ones with timers only work for a week at time. Need to be cleaned and reset. If you hired someone for that, it might work but they would need to be well versed in testing and adjusting levels.

When away for a long period of time, the only way I can see doing this is with a VS pump and an SWG. It would be the closest thing to maintenance free. A VS pump on the lowest RPM would use less than 100 watts (more efficient than a cheap low HP pump or even a robot). A SWG is around 200 watts for a 40k version. Minimum run time for that size pool would be dependent on the size of the SWG but could be kept fairly short with a very large SWG and if the pool is covered. The enemy will be heat during the summer as that will consume the FC faster. So the cover will help during the day but would keep heat in during the night so an automatic cover that could open at night might help. But then water consumption comes into play (evaporation) so you would need an autofill.
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Hi Mark, we are resigned to drain the pool when we leave each time. The amount of power and human maintenance while we are not there just isn't feasible for us. Now we are trying to size a pump and SWCG to draw the absolute least amount of power ( we have a small solar array) that would work. Our pool will be just under 5300 gallons.
With the VS pump and SWCG you mentioned above, how many hours/day would you think we would need to plan on running the pump?
 
As I said before, it really depends on a couple of factors. The size of the SWG and if you plan on using a solar cover. The larger the SWG, the shorter the run time. The more a cover is used, the shorter the run time (less chlorine is lost) although this can be mitigated some by elevated CYA. Minimum run time though is probably an hour just for FC distribution at lower flow rates.

Production rate for an SWG and 5300 gallon pool would be around 7 ppm per kwh. If you need 2 ppm per day, that would be about 400 watt-hours. A T-15 cell could do that in 2 hours time. Also, I have run my T-15 below 15 GPM and it works fine so low speed on a VS should be ok as long as the plumbing system is designed properly.

But if you are there to service the robot, the robot would work as well. You will need to clean the pool floor anyway, lots of desert sand will get into the pool, and that is the best and cheapest way to do that. The two hours of cleaner run time should be more than sufficient to mix the water after dosing. The issue then becomes, how to dose the pool. The SWG would require the pump to run and the combined power of that will likely be larger than the robot alone. Especially since you will need to run the robot in both scenarios unless you were planning to manually vacuum but then that would require higher RPM and more power from the pump.
 
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mas985 said:
This could be used with the robot for chlorination: http://www.sun-chlor.com/about-us.html
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looks interesting but it seems like their product is top secret, even to potential buyers! I couldn't find a picture of it being used. The youtube video was hilarious- it just shows a floating solar panel for a couple of minutes.
Do you know about this product? Does it live in the pool at all times? Does it have a cable from the floating panel or is it attached to the panel?
The idea is good for us- no power consumption and adds chlorine for you. Better than running a whole pool circ pump to achieve this. Not sure though if it lives in the pool. I never liked folks' pools where they have a constantly running pool cleaner and hose moving all around. More info. is needed
 
mas985 said:
As I said before, it really depends on a couple of factors. The size of the SWG and if you plan on using a solar cover. The larger the SWG, the shorter the run time. The more a cover is used, the shorter the run time (less chlorine is lost) although this can be mitigated some by elevated CYA. Minimum run time though is probably an hour just for FC distribution at lower flow rates.

Production rate for an SWG and 5300 gallon pool would be around 7 ppm per kwh. If you need 2 ppm per day, that would be about 400 watt-hours. A T-15 cell could do that in 2 hours time. Also, I have run my T-15 below 15 GPM and it works fine so low speed on a VS should be ok as long as the plumbing system is designed properly.

But if you are there to service the robot, the robot would work as well. You will need to clean the pool floor anyway, lots of desert sand will get into the pool, and that is the best and cheapest way to do that. The two hours of cleaner run time should be more than sufficient to mix the water after dosing. The issue then becomes, how to dose the pool. The SWG would require the pump to run and the combined power of that will likely be larger than the robot alone. Especially since you will need to run the robot in both scenarios unless you were planning to manually vacuum but then that would require higher RPM and more power from the pump.
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Good point on SWG power consumption. The robot is looking like a good idea. Check my reply to your idea of the solar chlorinator. Not a lot of info. from their website.
 
That is just one of several. They sit in the water and produce the chlorine. The downside is that it prevents the use of a cover which would help reduce the chlorine consumption. Although a cover would also increase the heat in the pool which may be too much for the location. So some trade offs there. I don't know much about reliability. I don't think many on the forum have tried this. You may need to do some research on it.

The other solution mentioned is a peristaltic pump but generally those are used to inject chlorine into the return plumbing. I don't think anyone has ever configured one for direct injection into the pool. I suppose a small PVC line directly to the pool would work but you would be better off with a very large chlorine tank so you could dilute the chlorine as to prevent degradation in the tank.
 
I think we have some very good ideas and realistic options going for my situation. Thank you everybody who has contributed input towards this.


At this point I will move forward with a tile pool plumbed conventionally for a sand filter and SWCG. When we get ready to start up the pool I will take a close look at our solar system and review electrical needs for the pool based on several options:
-VS pump
-SWCG sized for 5300 gallons.
-Maytronics S200 robot
When we have a good idea of what our options are I will check back in and post updates.
-Dave
 

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